Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said he will oppose Loretta Lynch’s confirmation for U.S. attorney general because she supports civil forfeitures, but the Congressional Black Caucus knows his real motive — he’s racist.
“Senator Paul is using the issue of civil forfeitures to block a well-qualified federal prosecutor from heading the Department of Justice,” CBC Chairman G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., said in a press release. “Senator Paul also has the audacity to suggest that Loretta Lynch should have more concern for people living in poverty.
Butterfield added: “The Congressional Black Caucus recognizes Senator Paul’s unfounded argument as nothing but an excuse to keep an African-American legal scholar from holding this high position, and we directly call on him and Republicans to allow the nomination of Loretta Lynch to proceed to an up or down vote in the Senate.”
That’s right, Paul isn’t really upset that Lynch supports a practice that allows law enforcement to seize people’s cars, money and other property without their having been tried or convicted — a highly dubious practice that has unjustly expropriated many black Americans, by the way. He just doesn’t like that she’s black.
Paul told Fox News host Greta Van Susteren on Wednesday his reason for opposing Lynch.
“Civil forfeiture turns justice on its head,” Paul said. “Instead of being innocent until proven guilty, you are guilty until proven innocent. The government takes your cash — $1,000, $100, $500, whatever it is. This program predominantly has targeted black individuals, poor individuals, Hispanic individuals. And when Sen. [Mike] Lee asked her about it in the committee, she said, ‘Oh, no, as long as there is a valid court order.’”
Lynch said during her confirmation hearing the previous week that she believes “civil and criminal forfeiture are important tools to the Department of Justice, as well as our state and local counterparts through state laws, in essentially managing or taking care of the first order of business, which is to take the profit out of criminal activity.”
Remember — police can seize that property without charges even being filed. They often do so when there is no evidence of a crime. They have been known to take the homes of parents whose children were alleged to have sold drugs without their knowledge. Current AG Eric Holder even took steps earlier this year to limit the use of the practice by requiring evidence of a crime before assets could be seized.
Lynch has used the practice in her office to rake in more than $113 million in civil actions between 2011 and 2013.
But there’s no way that could be the reason Paul opposes her nomination. No, it must be the racism.
